The #WeAreIrish hashtag on Twitter just got very racist

A Twitter campaign extolling the racial diversity of modern Ireland took a dark turn after trolls attacked users for being Irish. Asian Irish woman Úna-Minh Caomhánach from Kerry started the hashtag to showcase the multiracial nature of Ireland but was swiftly hit by a backlash.

“The idea for #WeAreIrish came as a complete spur of the moment thing for me this week,” she told IrishCentral.

“I talk a fair bit about Ireland and the concept of Irishness (a lot of people don't accept me despite the fact that I've both an Irish passport and birth certificate). I wanted to create an image that shows how multicultural Ireland is these days. The image has a wide mix of people but with one thing in common: they're Irish.

“As a background to some of the people featured, they're Irish in different capacities. Some are adopted like me, some were born here, others have one Irish parent. I wanted to make a point that our color doesn't matter. Sprinkled into the collage too are people like RTÉ radio presenter Rick O'Shea, Comedian Tara Flynn and author Sarah Maria Griffin.”

But a simple image of non-white Irish citizens provoked a huge racist backlash.